10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 21, 2004

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M' soccer enjoys
times on the road

r WOMEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Freshman Lee adjusts

By Anne Ulble
Daily Sports Writer

While road trips are first and fore-
most business-oriented for the Michi-
gan men's soccer team, it also knows
how to make the most of any city it
visits.
"Road games are pretty tough
to handle sometimes," sophomore
Bobby Trybula said. "But it's a chance
for the team to really bond together
and have a good time."
This weekend the Wolverines will
take their final road trip of the regu-
lar season, as they travel to Madison
tomorrow and Evanston on Sunday.
The team has 12 road games on its
schedule this season compared to its
nine home games. Most teams would
consider playing more than half its
games away from home to be a pain
and; a disruption, but Burns sees the
trips as a means of strengthening the
team's skills and abilities. Since the
program is just five years old - and
considered inexperienced - it has
had a tough time convincing compet-
itive squads to come to Ann Arbor.
That is why Michigan coach Steve
Burns is forced to schedule so many
road games.
Traveling may be difficult for
a young team," Burns said. "But it
makes us stronger."
When the Wolverines take longer
trips, the coaching staff tries to give
the players an opportunity to explore
the city they are visiting.
'Usually, when we have weekend
trips and get a break from games, we
like to take the guys on mini-trips,"

Burns said. "Most of the trips are
designed to give them a historical
perspective. While we were in New
York (three weeks ago), we visited
Ground Zero before watching the
(Michigan football) game in Times
Square."
Burns enjoyed the outing in the Big
Apple, but said that the city was too
distracting for younger members of
the team and compromised the seri-
ousness of the trip.
The Wolverines take a plane for
trips that would take longer than
seven hours by car. But for the most
part, Michigan travels by bus. For
entertainment on the longer bus rides,
the players usually watch movies, lis-
ten to music and play Texas hold'em
or euchre.
Card games are a major part of the
long road trips. While Burns doesn't
participate in poker games with the
team due to NCAA regulations con-
trolling gambling, he swears that he's
a tough euchre player and is unbeat-
able with senior Mychal Turpin as his
teammate.
"We connect when it comes to
cards," Burns said. "We haven't lost
a game yet this year."
For movie options, the coaching
staff lets the players decide what they
want to watch, but it's up to them to
go out and rent the videos. Burns
always reminds the players that if
they don't bring any movies, he'll put
on one of from his collection.
"I'm more old school when it comes
to movies," Burns said. "I usually
bring "Caddyshack," "Ferris Buel-
ler's Day Off" or "Fletch" because

to collegial
By Dan Ketchel
Daily Sports Writer
At 5:30 in the morning, the sun has not
yet peaked over the horizon, the birds have
not yet begun to chirp and the frost is just
threatening to rest on the grass. But inside
Canham Natatorium, the area around the
pool is alive with action like it's the mid-
dle of the afternoon.
For freshman diver Elyse Lee, early
wakeups and training before dawn have
become one of the most brutal aspects
of being a collegiate athlete. Waking up
to rigorous training like dry-land exer-
cises (to increase stamina and flexibility)
or body contortions into three meters of
water - it's better than a cold shower.
Lee, who went to high school in Albi-
on, spent the past four years of diving as
an undefeated state champion. Michigan
diving coach Chris Bergere regards Lee
as one of his top divers coming into the
very young program - a team that has 15
freshmen on the roster.
"She already knows how to compete,"
Bergere said. "She has a game face. I've
seen her dive in meets, so she has that
experience that some of our other new
divers aren't coming in with."
But even Bergere admits that Lee
has some basic fundamentals she
needs to work on. Standing at the
edge of the pool each day, he watches
her lunge into the depths of the pool
again and again, critiquing each dive
and explaining to her how she can
improve the next one.
"You need a tighter tuck on that ...
You came in just a bit over the top there,"
Bergere said to his freshman.
For every jump into the pool, he has a
suggestion as soon as her head emerges

:e diving,
from the depths of the water. Bergere
believes that correcting the mechanics of
Lee's dives is what will make her more
effective in competition and help her to
make a better transition into her new genre
of collegiate diving.
Lee is reserved about what kind of
competition she's faced in the past and
how it stacks up to NCAA diving. In high
school, diving was more of a casual, fun
activity for Lee. There were both athletes
of her own caliber and those just learning
to dive or just trying it out. In comparison,
diving for a Division I school provides an
atmosphere where each team member and
competitor is skilled, aggressive and hard
working.
"(It's) intense," Lee said. "I think I'll be
alright, because I consider myself (to be
someone) that steps up when it comes to
a meet. But I definitely have a couple of
weak points that Chris (Bergere) has been
trying to fix with me."
In Saturday's meet against swimming
and diving powerhouse Florida, Lee took
fifth place in both the three-meter and
one-meter springboard dives. The points
she earned for her team were the first of
what she hopes will be many in her col-
legiate career, and Bergere thinks she is
headed in the right direction.
Although Lee couldn't continue the
undefeated streak she left back in high
school, practices seem to be revealing
how she'll compete later down the road.
Bergere is confident that all of his young
divers who perform well in practice will
eventually be able to transfer that over to
their routines during meets.
Lee and the young Wolverine squad
will get another opportunity for victory
when they take on the Spartans in East
Lansing on Oct. 27.

TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily
Sophomore Bobby Trybula, right, goes for a ball against Bowling Green.

those are the classics. I'm not sure if
the guys really like my choices."
When the team gets closer to its
destination, Burns usually puts on
soccer highlight reels of professional
teams that help get his players men-
tally prepared.
"Those videos get us all pumped
up for the game," Trybula said. "By
the time we get to the field, we're
really ready to play."
As with any team, food is an impor-
tant factor on a road trip. Assistant
coach Ernie Yarborough is usually in
charge of making the dining arrange-
ments.

"When you have a 270-pound man
(Yarborough) on your team, food
plays a crucial role," Burns said.
"Ernie is really great about making
the team's eating experiences very
unique. Last year, when we were
playing in Indiana, he had a meal
catered for us at an art museum."
While the team is often fairly
pleased with the dining choices, Try-
bula recalls several unwanted trips to
Old Country Buffet thanks to Yar-
borough.
"That place is no good," Trybula
said. "And somehow we always end
up going there."

Cross country races tough on mind, body

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By- ". Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Writer
Toughness comes in many differ-
entforms, and for the Michigan men's
cross country team, toughness involves
mare than just the physical strains of
running.
"You really have to be strong - not
only physically, but mentally as well,"
senior Sean Moore said. "Just the strain
we re constantly putting on our bod-
ies, and with classes and all the other
responsibilities that come with college,
being mentally tough is probably the
most important thing."

That's not to say the team isn't physi-
cally tough. The cross country runners
have to run 10 to 15 miles a day and an
average of 80 miles during the course
of a week. At a brisk rate of six minutes
per mile, this isn't a light jog around
campus. Runners need to truly believe
in mind over matter.
"You don't have to run forever,"
Michigan senior Rondell Ruff said.
"Pain is for a little bit, but pride is for-
ever."
And that pain comes in more forms
than just running for 10,000 meters at a
time. Watching a 70-year-old man run-
ning laps at Ferry Field, one may think

running is a non-contact sport. But col-
lege cross country can be brutal.
Runners train all year, working on
race strategies and visualizing what
they want to do when the day of a meet
comes. At any given meet, anywhere
from 300 to 400 runners may be start-
ing at the same time. All of these run-
ners jockey to gain position during the
first half mile, far from field day at
elementary school.
"People get pushed, shoved and
elbowed," Michigan coach Ron War-
hurst said. "Kids have gotten run down
and trampled - not severely injured,
but hurt."

And the runners aren't the only
intense ones on the course.
"Cross country fans are some of the
best fans out there," Ruff said. "Ten
different schools' (fans) screaming for
their guys, and that's all you hear run-
ning through a tunnel of people."
This weekend's EMU Classic may not
be a formal meet, but it is the final race
before the Big Ten Championship. And
it's a chance for the younger runners
- and runners not in the conference
championship meet - a chance to run
and compete. But the Wolverines will
still take this meet seriously. They're
just too tough not to.

TONY DING/Daily
Michigan senior Sean Moore runs in East Lansing earlier this year.

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